Teenage online crime forum shut down

The teenage owner of an online forum used to trade stolen credit card details may have been sentenced to five years in jail - but many other card trading sites will still be operating.

Nicholas Webber, 19, ran ghostmarket.net, where over 8,000 users bought and sold information on stolen credit cards and bank accounts. He was arrested in October 2009 after attempting to use such a card to pay a bill at a London hotel. Police searched his laptop and discovered more than 130,000 credit card numbers, which could have resulted in losses of over £16m. Three accomplices were also sentenced to jail time.

Online criminals like Webber trade credit card details for the price of
just a few pence per card. Although ghostmarket.net has now been shut
down, many other web forums and chat servers will still be operating and
actively selling cards.

In addition to financial transactions, ghostmarket.net also offered advice on computing hacking and instructions for making illegal drugs like crystal meth. Police described the site as a "supermarket" for criminals.

A report in 2008 by security firm Symantec found that 98 per cent of chat servers dedicated to illegal trading have a lifespan of just six months, since criminals constantly move their operations to avoid detection.